Mount Manresa

By Thomas W. Matteo

In 1911, Rev. Terence Shealy purchased the Meyer estate on Staten Island. With magnificent views of the New York Harbor, the estate was a dream come true for Father Shealy. He was at the forefront of the lay retreat movement in the United States, and the Meyer estate was the perfect refuge for men to escape from the stress of everyday life. Judges and bricklayers came together to meditate and enjoy the beauty of this hilltop in rural Staten Island. The lay retreat movement grew and spread across the United States, with thousands coming to Mount Manresa. The house also had a strong relationship with Fordham University. The first retreat took place at Rose Hill campus, and three former Fordham presidents became directors of Mount Manresa after they left their posts in academia. Today Mount Manresa plays host to a multitude of retreats throughout the year, bringing more than 15,000 guests to the campus annually.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439639030

Thomas W. Matteo

Author Thomas W. Matteo is an associate professor at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City. He has served in several executive positions in New York City government, written books and pamphlets on Staten Island history, hosts a history researching Web site, and is the founder and a current board member of the Sea View Historic Foundation.

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S.J.

One

A LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY MEN

In a letter from Leo O’Hea, S.J., to an old classmate, Sidney Finlay, O’Hea encouraged him to work to establish a retreat house for laymen in America. Finlay was instrumental in convincing the Jesuits to support the idea, resulting in America’s first retreat house for laymen. Finlay returned to Mount Manresa in 1950 to see how his dream had grown and flourished.

St. Ignatius Loyola went through a transition in his life: from a solider of fortune and courtier to founder of the Jesuit order. During his journey, St. Ignatius spent a good deal of time traveling. One of the places he visited was Manresa, Spain. It was here that he began work on his Spiritual Exercises. The idea of retreats has been around as long as the Catholic Church but did not become popular until St. Ignatius wrote Spiritual Exercises in the 16th century. His exercises detailed a method for retreats that helped to popularize the idea and have been the basis for much retreat work today. Below is the Jesuit retreat house in Manresa, Spain, built over a cave where St. Ignatius prayed his Spiritual Exercises.

Retreats were not new phenomena in 1909. Although they had existed for hundreds of years, it was not until St. Ignatius Loyola, S.J., wrote his Spiritual Exercises that they were given direction and focus. Written during the 1520s and 1530s, the Spiritual Exercises were approved by Pope Paul III in 1548 and began to be used widely. The first laymen’s house for retreats was not established until 1891 when the House of Retreats at Fayt-les-Manage, Belgium, opened its doors. Its success spread throughout Belgium and then moved to France, Germany, Ireland, and England. After successful establishment by Leo O’Hea, S.J., of a retreat house at Compstall Hall in Marple (near Manchester), the movement finally leapt across the ocean to the United States.

Fr. Leo O’Hea, S.J., was a classmate and friend of Sidney J. Finlay at Stonyhurst in England. It was Father O’Hea who first interested Finlay in the lay retreat movement. Father O’Hea, a Jesuit scholar in the English Province, successfully established a retreat house at Compstall Hall in Marple in 1908. In a letter to Finlay, O’Hea explained that he had been drawn into two related movements, both owing much to Fr. Charles Plater, S.J.’s Social Studies for Workingmen and Retreats. He described his own involvement in Plater’s retreats for laborers and encouraged Finlay to inaugurate a similar program in the United States. Impressed by O’Hea’s letter, Finlay shared its contents with several of his colleagues in the Xavier Alumni Sodality. Since they too were taken with O’Hea’s suggestion, they approached the provincial to request the assistance of a Jesuit in the work they wished to pursue. Shortly thereafter, the provincial assigned Terence Shealy, S.J., to work with Finlay and his associates. Father O’Hea visited Mount Manresa in 1944.

Rev. Joseph Hanselman, S.J., was the provincial of the New York Province when Sidney Finlay and his friends from the Xavier Alumni Sodality approached him with the idea of establishing retreats for laymen. In a letter dated February 9, 1909, Father Hanselman expressed his interest in the idea, and after several meetings, Father Hanselman gave his blessing to the venture. On May 5, 1909, Father Hanselman wrote to Finlay, telling him that he has found a shepherd for the flock." That shepherd would be Rev. Terence Shealy, S.J.

Born in Ireland on April 30, 1863, Father Shealy, S.J., would go on to have a profound effect on the lives of laymen throughout the United States. In 1909, when he was asked to be the shepherd for this new flock, Father Shealy was lecturing at the School of Jurisprudence at Fordham University School of Law he had founded just a few years earlier. Father Shealy had boundless energy. Even though he had undertaken this new responsibility, he continued his duties at the law school, lectured on medical ethics at Fordham’s medical school, and taught social science at Marymount College. Father Shealy became so committed to the concept of laymen retreats, he lectured all over the country, as well as in Canada. He was also instrumental in helping to establish other retreat houses, including Malverene Retreat House near Philadelphia. Father Shealy worked tirelessly until his death in 1922.

Among the many men who played a prominent role in the success of the Laymen’s League for Retreats and Social Studies was Thomas F. Woodlock. Born in Dublin, Ireland, on September 1, 1866, he was educated at Beaumont College in England. He came to this country in January 1892 and, a few months later, joined the Wall Street Journal, eventually becoming its editor in 1902. In 1925, after leaving the paper, President Coolidge appointed him to the Interstate Commerce Commission, where he served for five years. He resigned from the commission in 1930 and returned to the